Conventional communication system switches, such as private branch exchanges (PBXs) and other premises-based telephone switches, generally support a wide variety of useful features, such as call forwarding, navigable directories, multi-call conferencing, etc. However, access to many of these desirable features is often limited to specialized and expensive communication terminals having a large number of customizable feature buttons, e.g., wired telephone desksets. Nonetheless, many manufacturers are currently producing simple terminals, e.g., mobile telephones and other types of wireless terminals, which include a display but only a very limited number of feature buttons. These simple terminals are generally forced to utilize interfaces designed for conventional telephone sets with no display capabilities.
Although standards exist which specify the interaction between user terminals and corresponding system switches, none have adequately addressed the above-described problem. For example, the Bellcore Analog Display Services Interface (ADSI)standard, Document BR-GR-1273-CORE, Issue 1 Jul. 1998, specifies how display-based user terminals may operate with network equipment. Unfortunately, the specification is quite complex and assumes certain capabilities in the terminals, such as soft-key labels and specialized tone generation. Such capabilities are often not present in a given user terminal, particularly in the simple display-based terminals that are becoming increasingly commonplace.
A number of approaches have been developed which attempt to provide a simple terminal with access to a broad array of features using a display and a limited set of feature buttons. One such arrangement is known as a “Euro-browser.” A Euro-browser typically utilizes a display and three function keys, i.e., a scroll-up key, a scroll-down key, and a select key. Available features are scanned using the scroll-up and scroll-down keys, with the display showing the names of the particular features in a sequential manner as the features are scanned. Pressing the select key then causes the currently displayed feature to activate.
Although the above-described Euro-browser feature access techniques are well known in the art, a need remains for improved techniques to implement such enhanced feature access in a communication system switch, using an interface which requires only a conventional keypad and display of a user terminal.